Present day digital circuit applications are becoming increasing sophisticated as the range of applications for these circuits increases. One important component for modern electronics is a digital to analog converter (DAC). When signals are processed in the digital domain, the signal is often converted to the analog domain, e.g., for transmission. Many architectures exists for DACs, including delta-sigma DACs, R-2R DACs, String DACs, and current steering DACs. These architectures have varying advantages and disadvantages. For high-speed or high converter/sample rate applications, current steering DACs tend to work the best among the different architectures, while delta-sigma DACs tend to work the best for applications requiring a high resolution.
Digital to analog converters (DACs), especially high-speed current steering DACs, have been moving to higher and higher sample rates as companies push to achieve high instantaneous bandwidth. The requirement of instantaneous bandwidth comes with the additional requirement that dynamic performance should not be sacrificed relative to existing lower bandwidth, lower frequency solutions.